Wednesday, 21 May 2014

Tetris Tote Bag

I'm not a big gamer type person but I did love Tetris back in the day. The shapes are so instantly recognisable I thought it would be fun to put them on a bag.

I made this bag from an old pair of my sons school trousers, 2 tea towels and some felt. You could just use regular fabric, or whatever you have.

I stitched my felt Tetris shapes on but you are not really into sewing you could use a fabric glue. You could even just add the shapes to an existing bag if you have one. Make it as easy or complicated as you like. First prepare the felt Tetris piecesI made templates from card, 4x4cm squares, in the right shapes.

The ones like the L shape you only need to do once, as you can just flip the template to cut the ones that are the opposite way round. These are the shapes and colours you need:

Unfortunately I don't seem to have photographed my pile of Tetris shaped pieces, sorry, you'll see them in just a second.Next prepare the fabric bag pieces

I used 2 tea towels to line my bag, so they determined how big it could be. I chopped a piece of the top to use for the handles, like so:

I used the lining fabric to measure my outer fabric from the trouser legs.

Then I used the off cut pieces to make the handle pieces. As my fabric was limited I had to join shorter pieces to make the long handles I wanted. If you have more fabric you can just cut longer pieces all in one. Or you could have shorter handles!So I ended up with 12 pieces:

Attach the felt shapesBefore you make the bag you want to add the decoration to one of the large outer fabric pieces.what can go wrong: If your felt needs ironing do it before you cut the shapes out, I did mine after and they pulled out of shape so I had to trim them again to make them fit - doh!

Play around with your pieces until you are happy with the arrangement, I was/am a Tetris fan so it was important to me that the pieces fitted like they would in the game. Remember if a line is all filled in it disappears (and you get points!) so you need to leave gaps on every line.Once you you are happy pin them centrally to the bag front piece.

I attached each piece by stitching it on with a zig zag stitch, I wanted the thread colours to match so I stitched all the yellow, then all the green etc changing the threads as I went. It was a bit of a fiddle but worth it.

This is what the back looked like, I kind of like it!I secured all the threads on the front by poking them all to the back with a needle, then tying them together in pairs.

Now make the bagOnce the decoration was on, I joined the 2 outer pieces and the 2 lining pieces, right sides together, pinning then sewing down the side, along the bottom then back up the other side.

Leave a 3 inch gap in the bottom edge of the lining fabric in the middle. This is important, you'll need this gap later.

Next make the handlesJoin the handle pieces you cut out earlier in pairs by stitching the short edges. If you had more fabric and were able to cut longer strips you won't need to do this.

You should end up with 2 long thin strips of your main fabric and 2 of your lining fabric.

Pin 1 outer and 1 lining, right sides together, then stitch down the long edges.

To turn them right side out, put a safety pin on the end and push through the tube...

Just sort of bunch, them pull, then wiggle it through, go gently if your fabric is as fray-ee as my tea towel fabric.

Press flat with the iron then top stitch if you want to. I like how it neatens it up. Make the other handle in exactly the same way.

Now your handles are ready you can position them on the bag. Pin them to the outer bag, one handle on the front and one on the back, right sides together. Mine were 6cm in from the edge.

Turn this outer bag inside out again and turn the lining bag right side out. Insert the lining bag into the outer bag so the right sides are together.

Pin then stitch the two bags together along this top edge.

Pull the lining bag out and find that gap you left in the bottom edge. Now this is where the magic happens!

Gently pull the whole bag through that hole till it's all right side out.

Stitch the gap in the lining, either by hand or by top stitching on the sewing machine. Push the lining back inside the outer bag and Voilà! A beautifully lined bag - how cool is that!

I top stitched that top edge to neaten it and to strengthen where the handles join, but that is optional.

All the top quality photos in this post were taken by our daughter, you can find her website here

Oh I've loved Tetris ever since we had it on an original old beige Gameboy. Now the kids have it on DS's where you can play against each other, when you get a line it pushed them up (although it happens a lot more the other way round!) - they are SO quick and I am so rubbish but it is loads of fun! I don't do complicated games, if I can't learn it in 2 minutes it's not happening!

Thanks Mitzi, that's really kind of you to say so. I wonder if I ramble on too much sometimes but I don't want to miss anything out in case it's important. When I see other peoples tutorials I always like the ones with big clear pictures so try to do the same (as well as my photography skills/equipment will allow anyway)

Ok, this bag tells me that we must be besties starting this instant. Hand made bag + Tetris? You've got my number! Now, to raid my stash for the perfect fabrics. Would it look to cheesy with video game prints I wonder? Thanks for linking up with Creative Spark!!

I saw a lovely Tetris game crocheted blanket in coloured granny squares, in fact I've probably pinned it somewhere and it set me thinking what else I could put those iconic tetris shapes on and how. I have a couple more ideas in the pipeline but they are still at the ideas in my head stage. They may or may not make it to actual projects (I have a lot of ideas in my head, they don't all make it out!)

Hi! Featuring this today in the weekend create link inspire features on Nap-Time Creations! I've posted on FB, twitter, G+ and tagged you where I could! I would love any reshares ;o) Happy Saturday! Emily

I loved your Tip Me Tuesday link. {thanks girl!} Would you like Tip Junkie to feature your blog post to over 200,000 creative women? If you upload this blog post into your Tip Junkie craft room using at least 2 images, 2 steps, and blog post URL then I can easily feature it in my RSS feed, home page, and all my social networks instantly. {squealing with delight} ~ Laurie {a.k.a. the Tip Junkie}http://www.tipjunkie.com/post/how-to-add-a-craft-room-project-on-tip-junkie/

This is so awesome! I also loved Tetris (can't seem to get into any other more modern games!), and besides being a fun game, it's also very pretty to look at and instantly recognizable, so it's perfect for a bag like this! This would be such a great gift for a guy! :) Lisa

Thanks Lisa, Yes, this would be a great man bag, I was thinking I could do a range of all retro games - things like Snake and Asteroids - but that's still only at the idea stage! Have you tried 1010 or 2048? They are both a good simple games you can get on your phone or ipad which take 1 minute to learn how to play and can waste hours on a long train journey! Both super addictive though!

That's so funny, because as soon as I wrote that comment, I remembered that I have 2048 and spent months totally obsessed with it, until I had to wean myself off of it! Is 1010 similar?Those other bags sound fantastic! By the way, I also found this tutorial through Threading my way, like the commenter above! :)

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